His name became synonymous with horror, thanks to films like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Last House on the Left, and the Scream series—a most unexpected career for a man who didn’t even see his first movie until he was in college(emphasis mine).

Do you think it would be possible today, to jump into a career and start making movies? The article goes on to quote various interviews with him, and how, almost by chance, he started making movies. I don't know enough about the film business to know if such a trajectory is possible today. I've got the sense it might be possible in some areas of music, some areas of writing.

Which brings us to "breaking into science". As someone once remarked to me (and I have forgotten who), it was a lot easier for Albert Einstein to be a fair to good amateur violinist than for Yeduhi Menuhnin to be a good amateur physicist.

Is it easier in the beginning of a field to break in, to be the person who sets the world on its ear, with only minimal or non-professional training? Or is it a function of the technology, and access to (at the time) expensive infrastructure that determines who can do what?